User interface date selectors for historical reports

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

0001This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/738,467 entitled SIDE BY SIDE HISTORICAL REPORTS WITH A DATE CHANGE PRESENTATION UI, by Abraham, et al., filed Dec. 18, 2012, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/739,595 entitled COMPONENT TO ALLOW USERS TO PICK DATES AND PREDEFINED DATES, by Abraham, et al., filed Dec. 18, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

0002A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

User Interface Date Selectors for Historical Reports

0003One or more implementations relate generally to user interface date selectors for historical reports.

BACKGROUND

0004The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.

0005In computer science, an object is a location in memory having a value and referenced by an identifier. Since the introduction of object-oriented programming, an object can refer to a particular instance of a class, and can include multiple fields that have their corresponding values. Relational database management systems may track historical changes to data objects to provide additional information to system users. For example, a salesperson who stores sales opportunity information using a database management system may benefit from accessing the history of the sales opportunity information for a prospective customer, such as changes to the sales opportunity amounts and the sales opportunity scheduled sales dates during the last year. On Friday morning September 13th, the salesperson accesses the database management system to determine what were the potential sales amount and the scheduled sales date for all of the salesperson's sales opportunities during the present month.

0006The prior art user interface for the database management system permits the user to select either fixed dates or relative dates, such as the last day of each week or each day of the month. The weekly report would provide the requested data for the end of the day on Friday September 6^th, which is not enough dates for the salesperson, while the daily report would provide the requested data for the end of the day on September 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th, which is too many dates for the salesperson. If the salesperson wants a report with a number of dates between the number of dates provided by the weekly report and the number of dates provided by the daily report, the prior art user interface for the database management system permits the user to select fixed dates, such as identifying each date individually, which in many situations could become a time consuming process that may result in errors and/or user frustration.

BRIEF SUMMARY

0007In accordance with embodiments, there are provided systems and methods for user interface date selectors for historical reports. A user interface outputs a date selector including a calculated dates option, wherein the calculated dates option is based on a date frequency applied to a date range. For example, the user interface outputs a date frequency field and a date range field. The user interface receives a selection via the date selector. For example, the user interface receives the selection of an every third day frequency and a date range of the current month. Dates associated with the selection are identified. For example, the system calculates the selected days to be September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. The user interface outputs the dates as a preview of a historical report, wherein the dates are output in a chronological order. For example, the user interface outputs a preview of a historical report that includes the dates September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. Accordingly, systems and methods are provided which enable a database system to improve the performance, efficiency, and the ease of use of selecting dates for historical reports.

0008While one or more implementations and techniques are described with reference to an embodiment in which user interface date selectors for historical reports are implemented in a system having an application server providing a front end for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multiple tenants, the one or more implementations and techniques are not limited to multi-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers. Embodiments may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of the embodiments claimed.

0009Any of the above embodiments may be used alone or together with one another in any combination. The one or more implementations encompassed within this specification may also include embodiments that are only partially mentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to at all in this brief summary or in the abstract. Although various embodiments may have been motivated by various deficiencies with the prior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or more places in the specification, the embodiments do not necessarily address any of these deficiencies. In other words, different embodiments may address different deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification. Some embodiments may only partially address some deficiencies or just one deficiency that may be discussed in the specification, and some embodiments may not address any of these deficiencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0010In the following drawings like reference numbers are used to refer to like elements. Although the following figures depict various examples, the one or more implementations are not limited to the examples depicted in the figures.

0011<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is an operational flow diagram illustrating a high level overview of a method for user interface date selectors for historical reports in an embodiment;

0012<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a screen shot illustrating frames of an example user interface screen of a display device supporting methods for user interface date selectors for historical reports;

0013<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> illustrates a block diagram of an example of an environment wherein an on-demand database service might be used; and

0014<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> and various possible interconnections between these elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

0000General Overview

0015Systems and methods are provided for user interface date selectors for historical reports.

0016As used herein, the term multi-tenant database system refers to those systems in which various elements of hardware and software of the database system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, a given application server may simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and a given database table may store rows for a potentially much greater number of customers. As used herein, the term query plan refers to a set of steps used to access information in a database system.

0017Next, mechanisms and methods for user interface date selectors for historical reports will be described with reference to example embodiments.

0018The following detailed description will first describe a method for user interface date selectors for historical reports.

0019Next, a screen shot illustrating frames of an example user interface screen is described.

0020<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is an operational flow diagram illustrating a high level overview of a method <b>100</b> for user interface date selectors for historical reports in an embodiment. As shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>, a database system can improve the performance, efficiency, and the ease of use of selecting dates for historical reports.

0021In block <b>102</b>, a user interface outputs a date selector including a calculated dates option, wherein the calculated dates option is based on a date frequency applied to a date range. For example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface outputting a date frequency field and a date range field. The date frequency and the date range may be predefined and/or user configurable. For example, the date frequency may initially display a default option of daily and the date range may initially default to the current month. In another example, the salesperson may create the day frequency of every 19 days and create a date range of the previous 97 days. The user interface may also include a fixed date option and a relative date option. For example, the user interface may enable a salesperson to individually select specific dates, such as August 1^st. In another example, the user interface may enable the salesperson to select from a variety of relative dates, such as a specified number of days ago, a specified number of weeks ago, the first day of the current week, the first day of the previous week, the first day of a specified number of weeks ago, a specified number of months ago, the first day the current month, and the first day of a specified number of months ago. Any other type of relative dates is also possible.

0022In block <b>104</b>, a user interface receives a selection via a date selector. By way of example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface receiving a selection of an every third day frequency and a date range of the current month. The selection may include any combination of fixed dates, relative dates, and calculated dates.

0023In block <b>106</b>, dates associated with selection are identified. In embodiments, this can include the database system calculating the selected days to be September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. The identified dates may include any combination of fixed dates, relative dates, and calculated dates.

0024In block <b>108</b>, a user interface outputs dates as a preview of a historical report, wherein the dates are output in a chronological order. For example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface outputting a preview of a historical report that includes the dates September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. The preview may include no data for the corresponding dates, or include only a first few rows of data for the corresponding dates.

0025In block <b>110</b>, a user interface optionally receives a second selection via a date selector. By way of example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface receiving the selection of the every third day frequency applied to an expanded date range of the previous 30 days because the salesperson likes the dates displayed in the preview and decides to request more dates using the same frequency.

0026In block <b>112</b>, second dates associated with a second selection are optionally identified. In embodiments, this can include the database system calculating the selected days to be August 16^th, 19^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 28^th, and31^st, in addition to September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. If the salesperson attempted to select all of these dates using the fixed date option, not only would the process be time consuming, but the human calculation of dates spanning the end of a month with 31 days could be prone to user error.

0027In block <b>114</b>, a user interface optionally outputs second dates as a second preview of a historical report, wherein the second dates are output in a chronological order. For example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface dynamically outputting a second preview of a historical report that includes the dates August 16^th, 19^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 28^th, and 31^st, and September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. The database system's user interface responds immediately to the second selection by dynamically outputting the second preview. Similar to the first preview, the second preview may include no data for the corresponding dates, or include only a first few rows of data for the corresponding dates.

0028In block <b>116</b>, a user interface optionally receives a confirmation of a preview. By way of example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface receiving the salesperson's confirmation of the dates listed in the first preview or the second preview as a request for the corresponding historical report.

0029In block <b>118</b>, data corresponding to dates are optionally identified. In embodiments, this can include the database system identifying the salesperson's opportunities corresponding to the dates Aug. 16^th, 19^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 28^th, and 31^st, and September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. In contrast to the preview, which requires no identification of data or limited identification of data, the database system identifies all of the data for all of the corresponding dates.

0030In block <b>120</b>, a user interface optionally outputs a historical report including dates and data corresponding to the dates in a chronological order. For example and without limitation, this can include the database system's user interface outputting a historical report including the salesperson's opportunities corresponding to the dates August 16^th, 19^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 28^th, and 31^st, and September 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th. The database system may output historical reports based on a combination of fixed dates, relative dates, and calculated dates. For example, if the salesperson also selected the fixed date of August 30^thand the relative date of the first day of the current week, which would be September 8^th, the database system's user interface outputs a historical report including the salesperson's opportunities corresponding to the dates August 16^th, 19^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 28^th, 30^th, and 31^st, and September 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 12^th. If a user selected a duplicate date, such as by selecting September 6^thas a fixed date as well as a calculated date, the database system's user interface can eliminate duplicate dates, such as displaying only one column of the salesperson's opportunity data for September 6^th. The database system may output historical reports based on an alternative chronological order, such as a reverse chronological order that would result in the opportunities listed in an order corresponding to September 12^th, 9^th, 6^th, and 3^rd, and August 31^st, 28^th, 25^th, 22^nd, 19^th, and 16^th.

0031The historical report may include data corresponding to a current date and an indicator of a relative change between first data corresponding to a first date and second data corresponding to a second date. For example, the historical report also includes the salesperson's opportunity for the current date of September 13^th, and relative change indicators that highlight the data for September 12^thwith a green plus sign because the corresponding opportunity increased from September 9^thto September 12^th, and highlight the data for September 9^thwith a red minus sign because the corresponding opportunity decreased from September 6^thto September 9^th. The relative change indicators enable a user to quickly see changes over time. The relative change indicators are user configurable, such that a user may change the colors and the indicator signs that the database system uses to indicate both increases in the corresponding data and decreases in the corresponding data.

0032The method <b>100</b> may be repeated as desired. Although this disclosure describes the blocks <b>102</b>-<b>120</b> executing in a particular order, the blocks <b>102</b>-<b>120</b> may be executed in a different order.

0033<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a screen shot illustrating frames <b>200</b> and <b>202</b> of an example user interface screen of a display device for user interface date selectors for historical reports in an embodiment. The frame <b>200</b> may include a frequency selector <b>204</b>, which indicates a quarterly frequency is selected, a period selector <b>206</b>, which indicates a period of this year is selected, and a preview section <b>208</b>, which indicates that the selected frequency applied to the selected ranges results in the dates of June 30^thand September 30^thfor the requested data, which may indicate that the requested data did not exist yet on March 31^st.

0034The frame <b>204</b> may include a frequency selector <b>210</b>, which indicates a daily frequency is selected, a period selector <b>212</b>, which indicates a period of the previous three days is selected, and a preview section <b>214</b>, which indicates that the selected frequency applied to the selected ranges results in the dates of October 26^th, October 27^th, and October 28^thfor the requested data, in addition to the current date. The dashes in the opportunity 1 row for the previous three days may indicate that the requested data did not exist yet on the three previous days for opportunity 1. If the system user uses an input device to hover over a data field, the database system's user interface may display a change indicator associated with the data field as long as the user is hovering over the data field. For example, if the salesperson hover over the current amount for opportunity 2, the database system's user interface displays a green tooltip that indicates that the amount increased by $30 relative to the previous date's amount.

0035The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> may be part of a larger display screen that includes fields for users to enter commands to create, retrieve, edit, and store records. The database system may output a display screen that includes the frame frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> in response to a search based on search criteria input via a user interface. Because the frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> are samples, the frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> could vary greatly in appearance. For example, the relative sizes and positioning of the text is not important to the practice of the present disclosure. The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> can be depicted by any visual display, but is preferably depicted by a computer screen. The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> could also be output as a report and printed or saved in electronic format, such as PDF. The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> can be part of a personal computer system and/or a network, and operated from system data received by the network, and/or on the Internet. The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> may be navigable by a user. Typically, a user can employ a touch screen input or a mouse input device to point-and-click to a location on the frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> to manage the text on the frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b>, such as a selection that enables a user to edit the text. Alternately, a user can employ directional indicators, or other input devices such as a keyboard. The text depicted by the frame frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> are examples, as the frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> may include a much greater amount of text. The frames <b>200</b>-<b>202</b> may also include fields in which a user can input textual information.

0000System Overview

0036<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> illustrates a block diagram of an environment <b>310</b> wherein an on-demand database service might be used. Environment <b>310</b> may include user systems <b>312</b>, network <b>314</b>, system <b>316</b>, processor system <b>317</b>, application platform <b>318</b>, network interface <b>320</b>, tenant data storage <b>322</b>, system data storage <b>324</b>, program code <b>326</b>, and process space <b>328</b>. In other embodiments, environment <b>310</b> may not have all of the components listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

0037Environment <b>310</b> is an environment in which an on-demand database service exists. User system <b>312</b> may be any machine or system that is used by a user to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems <b>312</b> can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. As illustrated in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> (and in more detail in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref>) user systems <b>312</b> might interact via a network <b>314</b> with an on-demand database service, which is system <b>316</b>.

0038An on-demand database service, such as system <b>316</b>, is a database system that is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, but instead may be available for their use when the users need the database system (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand database services may store information from one or more tenants stored into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system (MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service <b>316</b>” and “system <b>316</b>” will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or more database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against the database object(s). Application platform <b>318</b> may be a framework that allows the applications of system <b>316</b> to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demand database service <b>316</b> may include an application platform <b>318</b> that enables creation, managing and executing one or more applications developed by the provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems <b>312</b>, or third party application developers accessing the on-demand database service via user systems <b>312</b>.

0039The users of user systems <b>312</b> may differ in their respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system <b>312</b> might be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system <b>312</b> to interact with system <b>316</b>, that user system has the capacities allotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that user system to interact with system <b>316</b>, that user system has the capacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have access to applications, data, and database information accessible by a lower permission level user, but may not have access to certain applications, database information, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard to accessing and modifying application and database information, depending on a user's security or permission level.

0040Network <b>314</b> is any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. For example, network <b>314</b> can be any one or any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriate configuration. As the most common type of computer network in current use is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood that the networks that the one or more implementations might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

0041User systems <b>312</b> might communicate with system <b>316</b> using TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, user system <b>312</b> might include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from an HTTP server at system <b>316</b>. Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network interface between system <b>316</b> and network <b>314</b>, but other techniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the interface between system <b>316</b> and network <b>314</b> includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

0042In one embodiment, system <b>316</b>, shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>, implements a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in one embodiment, system <b>316</b> includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRM software applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems <b>312</b> and to store to, and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical database object, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system <b>316</b> implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system <b>316</b> may provide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User (or third party developer) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform <b>318</b>, which manages creation, storage of the applications into one or more database objects and executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the process space of the system <b>316</b>.

0043One arrangement for elements of system <b>316</b> is shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>, including a network interface <b>320</b>, application platform <b>318</b>, tenant data storage <b>322</b> for tenant data <b>323</b>, system data storage <b>324</b> for system data <b>325</b> accessible to system <b>316</b> and possibly multiple tenants, program code <b>326</b> for implementing various functions of system <b>316</b>, and a process space <b>328</b> for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of an application hosting service. Additional processes that may execute on system <b>316</b> include database indexing processes.

0044Several elements in the system shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> include conventional, well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example, each user system <b>312</b> could include a desktop personal computer, workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network connection. User system <b>312</b> typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) of user system <b>312</b> to access, process and view information, pages and applications available to it from system <b>316</b> over network <b>314</b>. Each user system <b>312</b> also typically includes one or more user interface devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other information provided by system <b>316</b> or other systems or servers. For example, the user interface device can be used to access data and applications hosted by system <b>316</b>, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a user. As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it should be understood that other networks can be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

0045According to one embodiment, each user system <b>312</b> and all of its components are operator configurable using applications, such as a browser, including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system <b>316</b> (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) and all of their components might be operator configurable using application(s) including computer code to run using a central processing unit such as processor system <b>317</b>, which may include an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computer program product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodiments described herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system <b>316</b> to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other data and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer code for implementing embodiments can be implemented in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

0046According to one embodiment, each system <b>316</b> is configured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client) systems <b>312</b> to support the access by user systems <b>312</b> as tenants of system <b>316</b>. As such, system <b>316</b> provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or more servers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally or across one or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to include a computer system, including processing hardware and process space(s), and an associated storage system and database application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described herein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database or storage network and associated processing intelligence.

0047<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> also illustrates environment <b>310</b>. However, in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> elements of system <b>316</b> and various interconnections in an embodiment are further illustrated. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> shows that user system <b>312</b> may include processor system <b>312</b>A, memory system <b>312</b>B, input system <b>312</b>C, and output system <b>312</b>D. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> shows network <b>314</b> and system <b>316</b>. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> also shows that system <b>316</b> may include tenant data storage <b>322</b>, tenant data <b>323</b>, system data storage <b>324</b>, system data <b>325</b>, User Interface (UI) <b>430</b>, Application Program Interface (API) <b>432</b>, PL/SOQL <b>434</b>, save routines <b>436</b>, application setup mechanism <b>438</b>, applications servers <b>400</b>₁-<b>400</b>_N, system process space <b>402</b>, tenant process spaces <b>404</b>, tenant management process space <b>410</b>, tenant storage area <b>412</b>, user storage <b>414</b>, and application metadata <b>416</b>. In other embodiments, environment <b>310</b> may not have the same elements as those listed above and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

0048User system <b>312</b>, network <b>314</b>, system <b>316</b>, tenant data storage <b>322</b>, and system data storage <b>324</b> were discussed above in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>. Regarding user system <b>312</b>, processor system <b>312</b>A may be any combination of one or more processors. Memory system <b>312</b>B may be any combination of one or more memory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system <b>312</b>C may be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks. Output system <b>312</b>D may be any combination of output devices, such as one or more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown by <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref>, system <b>316</b> may include a network interface <b>320</b> (of <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>) implemented as a set of HTTP application servers <b>400</b>, an application platform <b>318</b>, tenant data storage <b>322</b>, and system data storage <b>324</b>. Also shown is system process space <b>402</b>, including individual tenant process spaces <b>404</b> and a tenant management process space <b>410</b>. Each application server <b>400</b> may be configured to tenant data storage <b>322</b> and the tenant data <b>323</b> therein, and system data storage <b>324</b> and the system data <b>325</b> therein to serve requests of user systems <b>312</b>. The tenant data <b>323</b> might be divided into individual tenant storage areas <b>412</b>, which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage area <b>412</b>, user storage <b>414</b> and application metadata <b>416</b> might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage <b>414</b>. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage area <b>412</b>. A UI <b>430</b> provides a user interface and an API <b>432</b> provides an application programmer interface to system <b>316</b> resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems <b>312</b>. The tenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, such as one or more Oracle™ databases.

0049Application platform <b>318</b> includes an application setup mechanism <b>438</b> that supports application developers' creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage <b>322</b> by save routines <b>436</b> for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces <b>404</b> managed by tenant management process <b>410</b> for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL <b>34</b> that provides a programming language style interface extension to API <b>432</b>. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments is discussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, filed Sep. 21, 2007, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or more system processes, which manages retrieving application metadata <b>416</b> for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.

0050Each application server <b>400</b> may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., having access to system data <b>325</b> and tenant data <b>323</b>, via a different network connection. For example, one application server <b>400</b>₁might be coupled via the network <b>314</b> (e.g., the Internet), another application server <b>400</b>_N-1might be coupled via a direct network link, and another application server <b>400</b>_Nmight be coupled by yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between application servers <b>400</b> and the database system. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

0051In certain embodiments, each application server <b>400</b> is configured to handle requests for any user associated with any organization that is a tenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove application servers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to a specific application server <b>400</b>. In one embodiment, therefore, an interface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the application servers <b>400</b> and the user systems <b>312</b> to distribute requests to the application servers <b>400</b>. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the application servers <b>400</b>. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as round robin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, in certain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit three different application servers <b>400</b>, and three requests from different users could hit the same application server <b>400</b>. In this manner, system <b>316</b> is multi-tenant, wherein system <b>316</b> handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparate users and organizations.

0052As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs a sales force where each salesperson uses system <b>316</b> to manage their sales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage <b>322</b>). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system having nothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

0053While each user's data might be separate from other users' data regardless of the employers of each user, some data might be organization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users or all of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there might be some data structures managed by system <b>316</b> that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants including possible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keep data, applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data and tenant specific data, system <b>316</b> might also maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants.

0054In certain embodiments, user systems <b>312</b> (which may be client systems) communicate with application servers <b>400</b> to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from system <b>316</b> that may require sending one or more queries to tenant data storage <b>322</b> and/or system data storage <b>324</b>. System <b>316</b> (e.g., an application server <b>400</b> in system <b>316</b>) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. System data storage <b>324</b> may generate query plans to access the requested data from the database.

0055Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, such as a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined categories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and custom objects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more data categories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes a customer with fields for basic contact information such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields for information such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”.

0056In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to create and store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standard entities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standard objects, including custom index fields. U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customers that their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that their data may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

0057While one or more implementations have been described by way of example and in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood that one or more implementations are not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.